As the year comes to a close, CEOs and executives from Katahdin’s Collective gathered on Zoom to share their visions, strategies, and collective wisdom for the upcoming year. The facilitated discussion used the "Start, Continue, Stop" framework to organize plans. This recap contains some of the input that was shared and discussed.

What CEOs Plan to Start

1. Revisiting Hiring Processes: Reevaluate and revert to a longer, more thorough hiring process to avoid past mistakes.
   
2. Enhanced Leadership Communication: Implement a more transparent and frequent communication strategy within the leadership team to foster a culture of direct feedback.
   
3. Implement Innovation Days: Introduce quarterly "Innovation Days" when the office is closed to outside activities, allowing team members to work on, pilot, and experiment with new ideas for professional development.
   
4. Increased Focus on AI: Designate internal resources to explore how AI can support business goals and solve problems. Finding a balance of not putting too many resources into AI while also keeping an eye on how it’s progressing and can be best used.

What CEOs Plan to Continue

1. Frequent Board Communication: Maintain a weekly update to the board for radical transparency, facilitating faster decision-making.
   
2. Weekly Updates for Employees: Continue sharing weekly updates with employees, especially in a hybrid work environment, to ensure the full team has context around decisions and strategies for moving the business forward.
   
3. Non-Leaders Leading Meetings: Continue the practice of non-leadership individuals leading all-hands meetings occasionally not only provides a leadership development opportunity but also contributes to the company's unique culture.‍
4. Strategic Goal Ownership: Maintain the practice of assigning a single owner to each strategic goal to ensure accountability and effective execution.
5. ‍Cross-Functional Commitment: Continue to focus on the importance of commitment from the entire leadership team towards strategic goals, recognizing the cross-functional nature of these goals and how teams can work together to accomplish them.
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What CEOs Plan to Stop 

1. Negative Mindset in Downturns: Resist having a negative mindset during downturns and instead encouraging teams to focus on controllable factors and finding opportunities in chaos.‍
2. Excuses Based on Macroeconomic Environment: Refrain from allowing team members to use the macroeconomic environment as an excuse for not achieving certain performance metrics. Instead, encourage a positive outlook and proactive problem-solving.‍
3. Assuming Understanding of Vision: Stop assuming that everyone in the organization understands the vision and take proactive steps to address the lack of clarity.‍
4. Looking for Outside Talent: Commence looking outside the organization for talent and instead get better at growing it from within. 

In this final CEO Huddle of 2023, the insights shared reflect a commitment to growth, innovation, and resilience—a testament to the power of collaborative leadership. 2024 here we come!